Dear Fragile Men: Twitter Is Here to Help With #MasculinitySoFragile

The hashtag is not a feminist crusade. It's nudging us toward a better world.

We are in a moment of cultural change, in which traditional masculinity — of the white, straight, Christian, beer-drinking, action movie-watching, football-betting, ball-scratching, Call of Duty-playing, steak-eating persuasion — is expanding to include other definitions of being a man. Naturally, this freaks some people out. We see the backlash in such cultural moments as Gamergate, the Hugo Award Sad Puppy fiasco, the rise of the decidedly unchivalrous Donald Trump.

These are not random markers. What was once an identity guaranteed to give its beneficiaries automatic top societal position still mostly gives them automatic top societal position, but the mainstreaming of conversation around gender politics makes it slightly more malleable. If you are such a man — you’re probably too busy sending a dick pic or composing a Youtube comment to be reading this. But even so, put down that dick pic you’re about to send and go to Twitter. No, don’t post the dick pic on Twitter; look at the trending hashtag, #MasculinitySoFragile. It has garnered tweets with the following takeaways:

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Twitter can often be a dumb, cluttered echo chamber — but every so often it sparks meaningful discussion. This is not a misandric crusade; it’s an issue of how to live. Traditional masculinity is toxic not only to the non-masculine individuals it victimizes but also to men who feel pressured to embody it. A men-only world is not, in fact, anyone’s world.